” Planes and helicopters have their strengths and weaknesses. Planes are fast and can carry a lot of stuff a long way, while helicopters are slow but they don’t need enormous runways and they’re extremely maneuverable. So naturally, people want to combine them.

That’s why a team at NASA’s Langley Research Center is developing a drone that’s a hybrid of the two.

The GL-10 Greased Lightning is a ten-engine, battery-powered prototype with a ten-foot wingspan that can change its shape midair to fly either horizontally or vertically. This month, NASA announced it recently took off vertically and, for the first time, successfully rotated its wings to transition from “helicopter” mode to standard “wingborne” flight.

The GL-10 is a relative of the V-22 Osprey, the VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft developed in the 1980s for the US Air Force and Marines. It’s a tiltrotor design: The engines rotate to propel the aircraft either up and down (like a helicopter), or forward (like a propeller-driven plane). The Osprey can take off and land from the deck of a carrier or from a field in the middle of the jungle, instead of from a lengthy runway. It can haul 32 troops or 20,000 pounds of internal cargo up to 2,200 miles. It’s very handy.”

” It might sound like something straight out of Q’s laboratory or the latest Marvel film but a group of scientists in California have successfully created eye drops that temporarily enable night vision.

Science for the Masses, an independent “citizen science” organisation that operates from the city of Tehacapi, theorised that Chlorin e6 (Ce6), a natural molecule that can be created from algae and other green plants, could enhance eyesight in dark environments.

The molecule is found in some deep sea fish, forms the basis of some cancer therapies and has been previously prescribed intravenously for night blindness.

Jeff Tibbets, the lab’s medical officer, said: “There are a fair amount of papers talking about having injected it in models like rats and it’s been used intravenously since the 60s as treatments for different cancers. After doing the research, you have to take the next step.”

The next step was to moisten the eyes of biochemical researcher and willing guinea pig Gabriel Licina’s eyes with 50 microlitres of Ce6.

The effect was apparently almost instantaneous and, after an hour, he was able to distinguish shapes from 10 metres away in the dark and soon at even greater distances.”

” The repetitive power of the gif makes it a perfect way to learn how simple machines work. We saw that with these awesome gifs that break down the mechanics of engines and handguns, and we see it again here with the silencer.

SilencerCo posted this big infographic on its site, explaining not only how the piece suppresses the noise of gunfire but also just how many silencers there are around the country and the world.”

” A new innovation by Carbon3D, unveiled Monday at the TED2015 conference, could finally move 3D printing out of the hobby shop and onto every factory floor.

Imagine you’re in an emergency room with a blood vessel blockage. To save your life, a surgeon will first insert a tube, and carefully guide it through the clog. Then she might insert a stent, a piece metal or fabric mesh, to keep the vessel open. But that piece of hardware isn’t made to fit your body. Carbon3D can make one that does.

” The idea that you could produce a biodegradable stent that takes in your own anatomy and the tributaries of your blood vessels while you’re on the catheter table in an emergency room — that’s an amazing new future that is now in reach,” said Joseph DeSimone, CEO and co-founder of Carbon3D and a chemistry professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.

It all started in Japan with a tiny house that took 4.5 hours to build. It was made of plastic and measured 2.5 inches across and 2 inches high and had “partitions, furniture, and stairs.” It was one of the first 3D printed items to ever exist. That was 1981.”

” Back in July, the WASPProject unveiled to us their plans to 3D print homes in 3rd world countries using nothing but a 3D printer and clay made from native soil. The idea is a tremendous one, one which could be extraordinarily groundbreaking when it comes to creating shelter for poverty stricken nations.”

” Clay is abundant, and these 3D printers are quite affordable compared to other machines on the market. Providing a single 3D printer to small communities where there is little to no structurally sound housing, could provide for a solution to one of the world’s biggest problems. The fabrication of multiple homes in a short amount of time, is exactly what WASP is hoping to accomplish.”

” A drone crashed on the Upper West Side Friday evening. The drone apparently fell out of the sky at 61st Street and Columbus around 6:30 p.m. The drone landed near a delivery man riding a bicycle.

No one was injured. It’s not yet known who the drone belongs to.It’s a radio-controlled quad copter that had a go-pro camera still rolling. A man who works for fivethirtyeight.com witnessed and tweeted about the accident.

Just witnessed my first ever NYC drone crash, came down on the sidewalk on Columbus/61st by this delivery guy. pic.twitter.com/EJrUUZzXqg

” While most of the country is shivering in the cold, a theme park wants you to shiver with excitement at what it calls the world’s tallest and fastest “giga” coaster expected to make its debut later this month.

Carowinds, one of 11 amusement parks operated by Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Fair LP (NYSE: FUN), made the first test run Wednesday of its 325-foot-tall Fury 325 earlier this week. Its first passenger was a video camera, but when it opens March 27, 32 visitors in each open-air train car will be able to experience the climb to the top of the hill, a 81-degree drop and speeds of up to 95 miles an hour.

A giga coaster, a term coined by Cedar Fair’s first park, Cedar Point, has a drop from 300 to 399 feet. The next class is a “strata” coaster with a height of more than 400 feet.

In comparison, the Statue of Liberty stands 305 feet, 1 inch from the ground to the tip of the torch, according to the National Park Service.

When the Fury 325 opens, it will be among the five tallest roller coasters in the world, coming in at No. 3 or No. 5 depending on whether you’re including shuttle roller coasters, according to UltimateRollercoaster.com and EntertainmentDesigner.com. Steel-track shuttle coasters don’t travel a complete circuit.”

” Revealed at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show to a shocked and awed audience, the Ford GT has lit the world afire with its dramatic styling and promised performance. Now, it has a price tag to match the heat of its debut: about $400,000.

The word comes from Dave Pericak of Ford Performance at the Geneva Motor Show. Pericak said the price of the Ford GT would be near that of the Lamborghini Aventador, which stickers at a brisk $397,500, base.”

” With “more than” 600 horsepower on tap from a twin-turbocharged EcoBoost 3.5-liter V-6, a carbon fiber and aluminum structure, and serious aerodynamics, the Prototype-racer in production form should prove to be among the world’s most impressive sports cars—if not quite on par with the $1-million-plus hypercars from McLaren, Porsche, and Ferrari.”

” The age of 3-D printing in carbon fiber has hardly arrived. But the controversy over 3-D printing carbon fiber guns is well under way.

Starting in the second half of last year, 3-D printing startup MarkForged has been shipping the Mark One, a device it advertises as the world’s first 3-D printer that prints carbon fiber; The Mark One digitally fabricate objects in a material as light as plastic and as strong by some measures as aluminum. But one group isn’t about to receive its Mark One order: Defense Distributed, the non-profit political group that invented the first fully 3-D printed gun nearly two years ago.1″

As loathe as we are to provide these anti-liberty people with any publicity , we thought that our readers deserved to meet the staff of this anti-free trade business . The below video introduces you to the company founder Greg Mark and the rest of his staff . It should come as no surprise that the company is based in the “People’s Republic” of Massachusetts .

” Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson says he pre-ordered the Mark One about a year ago for $8,000, but was told last Friday in a phone call with a MarkForged salesman that the company refuses to sell him one, citing terms of service that disallow private citizens from using the machine to make firearms. So instead, Wilson is offering what he describes as a “bounty” to anyone who can get him MarkForged’s new carbon fiber printer.

“ Anyone who’s got access to one, any reseller, any individual or business or entity that can deliver it to me, I will give them fifteen grand,” says Wilson, who has also released a YouTube video advertising his offer. “I’m going to get this printer. I’m going to make a gun with it. And I’m going to make sure everyone knows it was made with a MarkForged printer.” “

” Quantum mechanics tells us that light can behave simultaneously as a particle or a wave. However, there has never been an experiment able to capture both natures of light at the same time; the closest we have come is seeing either wave or particle, but always at different times. Taking a radically different experimental approach, EPFL scientists have now been able to take the first ever snapshot of light behaving both as a wave and as a particle. The breakthrough work is published in Nature Communications.”

” When UV light hits a metal surface, it causes an emission of electrons. Albert Einstein explained this “photoelectric” effect by proposing that light – thought to only be a wave – is also a stream of particles. Even though a variety of experiments have successfully observed both the particle- and wave-like behaviors of light, they have never been able to observe both at the same time.

A research team led by Fabrizio Carbone at EPFL has now carried out an experiment with a clever twist: using electrons to image light. The researchers have captured, for the first time ever, a single snapshot of light behaving simultaneously as both a wave and a stream of particles particle.”

” This Viral video of an ice sled used for transportation across ice utilizes a John Boat and metal pipe runners. The old gas engine has a centrifigal clutch that engages the large saw blade that bites into the ice and gives it forward momentum. Forrunner to snowmobile.

Angling for Free Fishing Videos? Here is a video on Fishing Tips and Tricks, I do video on many species such as Catfish, Walleye, Muskie, Northern, Panfish, Salmon to include most freshwater and some saltwater fish. Information good from Fishing Pro to Novice angler will like this instruction where you can Discover Fishing when you are on the hunt for big fish. I will be talking about Fish, Fishing, Outdoors, lures, boats, motors, rods, reels, Bass, Boating, and wildlife.”

” You’re going out with friends mid-week, and you don’t want the boss/significant other/parole officer to find out. But it’s a birthday celebration, and Facebook’s auto-tagging the pictures your buddies upload like a dirty snitch. The first piece of advice: never “friend” your parole officer. The second? Maybe grab a pair of these “privacy” glasses from software security firm AVG. You, of course, can see my visage above, but AVG claims the technology in the specs means facial recognition software (like that of Facebook) will not.

” The BlackPhone, a $600-plus encrypted Android handset designed to keep the prying eyes of criminals and the government out of mobile communications, is now fully owned by Silent Circle thanks to the company raking in investment cash.

Terms of the buyout deal with Spanish smartphone maker Geeksphone, the phone’s hardware manufacturer, were not disclosed. Silent Circle said Thursday that it has raised $50 million and plans on showing off an encrypted “enterprise privacy ecosystem” at World Mobile Congress next week. A BlackPhone tablet is on the way, too.

” Silent Circle has brought tremendous disruption to the mobile industry and created an integrated suite of secure enterprise communication products that are challenging the status quo,” Mike Janke, cofounder and chairman of the Silent Circle board, said in a statement. “This first stage of growth has enabled us to raise approximately $50M to accelerate our continued rapid expansion and fuel our second stage of growth.”

The cash infusion and the push for encrypted communications are in part a direct result of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about massive government surveillance.”

” As you may know Hackers aren’t inherently bad — the word “hacker” doesn’t mean “criminal” or “bad guy.”, it means someone who tries to find solutions or alternative solutions to a problem. Geeks and tech writers often refer to “black hat,” “white hat,” and “gray hat” hackers. These terms define different groups of hackers based on their behavior.

A white hat hacker is someone working for corporations like anti-virus or firewall companies or in general trying to help society like most Anonymous Hackers.

A Gray Hat Hacker is someone who usually doesn’t work for any company and is neither good or bad, meaning that he hacks systems kinda illegally, but still not doing any harm to the system or anyone else.

A Black Hat Hacker is usually considered as the ‘typical’ bad guy who is doing harm, either financially or by just exploiting and hacking systems to push his own limits or better to day ego. “

” Lasqueti is a small island between Vancouver and Vancouver Island, home to a little known community of off-gridders who take pride in their isolation from both mainstream culture and mainland Canada. In this short documentary film, a journalist from 16×9 News goes to meet some of Lasqueti’s characters and find out more about life on this beautiful land that time forgot.

With very little industry or economy, most of the residents live simply, taking what they need from the landand having next to no carbon footprint (and little need for money). The 2011 census recorded 426 people living in Lasqueti, who meet up to socialize in the island’s (one) bar and cafe.

Lasqueti also has a free store, where people can leave or collect items without any monetary exchange. Just one hour by boat from Vancouver island, Lasqueti doesn’t have a tourist industry, booming economy or any industry to speak of, but those who live there say that they enjoy the sense of timelessness, community, and freedom that their home provides.”

” New Generations usually bring new base technologies, more network capacity for more data per user, and high speed Internet service, for which Internet service providers usually advertise. However, it is believed that the fifth generation (5G Technology) of mobile network will be beyond our thoughts.

Security researchers from the University of Surrey have just achieved Record-Breaking data speeds during a recent test of 5G wireless data connections, achieving an incredible One Terabit per second (1Tbps) speed – many thousands of times faster than the existing 4G connections.

After 4G, 5G is the next generation of mobile communication technology that aims at offering far greater capacity and be faster, more energy-efficient and more cost-effective than anything that has seen before. The boffins say 5G will be different – very different.

The 5G test was conducted at the university’s 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC), which was founded by a host of telecoms industry partners including Huawei, Fujitsu, Samsung, Vodafone, EE, Aircom, BT, Telefonica, Aeroflex, BBC and Rohde & Schwarz.

1Tbps of speeds are far faster than previously announced 5G tests – Samsung’s 7.5 gigabits per second (Gbps) record, which was 30 times faster than 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) speed and just less than 1% of the Surrey team’s speed.

” We have developed 10 more breakthrough technologies and one of them means we can exceed 1Tbps wirelessly. This is the same capacity as fiber optics but we are doing it wirelessly,” 5GIC director Prof Rahim Tafazolli told the news website V3.

With 1Tbps, it is possible to download a file 100 times the size of a feature film in just three seconds. This incredible speed is over 65,000 times faster than the current 4G download speeds.

The test was carried out over a distance of 100 meters using equipment built at the university. The head of the 5GIC said he planned to demonstrate the technology to the public in 2018. It’s believed that 5G could possibly be available in the UK by 2020.”

” The ZR 48 Corvette Boat is not your average white sail boat you would see tied down at the Harbor instead it is a striking black bullet that flies on the water with magnificent ease! It is no surprise this luxury boat would cost 1.7M dollars because it is not only strikingly beautiful on the water it’s power is incredible! The Carbon Fiber Powerboat puts out a whopping 2700Hp and sounds amazing on the water! click the video below to watch this black beauty on the water! “

” And that’s just the beginning of the ZR48’s features. It also has an ice cold 24,000 BTU air conditioning system to keep passengers cool on hot summer days, an Apple TV, and even has its own Wi-Fi network. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, awesomeness doesn’t come cheap: the ZR48 is listed for $1,700,000. But, at least it includes the trailer for that price.”

” The Corvette inspired cockpit is truly one of a kind. The custom dash has fully function gauges, a custom ZR1 steering wheel and shifter. The custom shifter throttles both engines and controls drive trim. The interior is ultra leather and suede, with six air conditioned seats. The driver and throttle man’s carbon fiber seats are power sliding with footrests.”

” NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts completed the first of three spacewalks to run cable outside the International Space Station on Saturday. Carly Marsh reports.Wall Street Journalhttp://online.wsj.com/ “

It doesn’t have an official name yet, but it’s being touted as the gun that can do it all, and has been in development since 2009. It’s designed in the NATO standard “bullpup” style, where the ammunition magazine is placed at the back of the weapon, rather than the front. This is similar to how Australia’s current weapon of choice, the F88 Austeyr is designed. Like the Austeyr, it also fires the same NATO standard 5.56mm calibre bullets.

On the top of the barrel, soldiers can attach either a 12-gauge shotgun or a grenade-launcher capable of holding up to three rounds at a time.

The most advanced part, however, is that the gun will include networking abilities that will allow it to receive data from back at base as well as the ability to find, aim and shoot at a target all by itself.”

” More firepower, improved accuracy and smart integrated accessories that connect to command and control networks are the headline features of the new integrated assault rifle concept that Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and Colt Canada have developed for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).

The prototype, in development since 2009 through the Soldier Integrated Precision Effects Systems (SIPES) project, includes a firing mechanism to shoot lightweight cased telescoped ammunition, a secondary effects module for increased firepower and a NATO standard power and data rail to integrate accessories like electro-optical sights and position sensors.

In order to support the multi-role nature of the weapon, the prototype’s secondary effects module features the ability to install either a three round 40 mm grenade launcher, or a 12-gauge shotgun. When optimized, the integrated weapon prototype could weigh less than a C7 equipped with a M203 grenade launcher, reducing the burden on soldiers.

“ In the medium term, this weapon concept represents a lethal, flexible general-purpose platform,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Serge Lapointe, from the Soldier Systems group in Director Land Requirements – Soldier Systems (DLR 5) of the Canadian Army. “It will be able to operate in all theatres of operations in the most complex terrain including urban areas, mountains, jungles, deserts and the Arctic.” “

” Star Wars fans are sure to want to make of get their hands on this awesome Millennium Falcon drone that has been created by hobbyist and drone master builder and YouTube member, Oliver C, who’s next project is going to be a Tie Fighter.

The Millennium Falcon drone custom skin is constructed from lightweight foam and fits snuggle onto the original chassis of the drone. You can see it being tested as a prototype and flown outside in the videos below.”

” If you want to understand why the government freaked out when a $400 remote-controlled quadcopter landed on the White House grounds last week, you need to look four miles away, to a small briefing room in Arlington, Virginia. There, just 10 days earlier, officials from the US military, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FAA gathered for a DHS “summit” on a danger that had been consuming them privately for years: the potential use of hobbyist drones as weapons of terror or assassination.

The conference was open to civilians, but explicitly closed to the press. One attendee described it as an eye-opener. The officials played videos of low-cost drones firing semi-automatic weapons, revealed that Syrian rebels are importing consumer-grade drones to launch attacks, and flashed photos from an exercise that pitted $5,000 worth of drones against a convoy of armored vehicles. (The drones won.) But the most striking visual aid was on an exhibit table outside the auditorium, where a buffet of low-cost drones had been converted into simulated flying bombs. One quadcopter, strapped to 3 pounds of inert explosive, was a DJI Phantom 2, a newer version of the very drone that would land at the White House the next week.

Attendee Daniel Herbert snapped a photo and posted it to his website along with detailed notes from the conference. The day after the White House incident, he says, DHS phoned him and politely asked him to remove the entire post. He complied. “I’m not going to be the one to challenge Homeland Security and cause more contention,” says Herbert, who runs a small drone shop in Delaware called Skygear Solutions. “

” You first see it, this unlikely vision, shortly after turning onto Canyon View Drive, a gently rolling street lined by the kind of anonymous homes that define American suburbia.

What is peeking up over the horizon is something decidedly different, however, and soon enough you will come upon it in all its remarkable glory: a four-legged organism of blackened steel perched on a scruffy ridge, its curving forms resolving themselves in a postcard view over the blue waters of a recreational lake. It could easily be something landed from outer space, the kind of house a James Bond villain might occupy, if he were to put down roots in a nondescript residential development 15 minutes from the drowsy heart of downtown Lubbock.

Inside, there are no aliens and no cinema bad guys. The house itself is unoccupied and has been since 2008, when Robert Bruno, the charismatic if somewhat mysterious sculptor who had made the house his life’s work, died at age 64 after a prolonged battle with colon cancer.

As meticulous as he was capricious, Bruno had built the house with virtually no assistance over the course of some 30 years, designing and modifying it as he went, frequently tearing out portions that no longer pleased him. On an apparent whim, he was known to jettison months of work. It was a process that seemed to take as many steps backward as forward and left friends and neighbors to wonder if he would ever finish. Indeed, after so many decades, they had come to understand that finishing was something that didn’t matter to him.”

I wasn’t able to embed the above photo in it’s PTgui format , but if the reader clicks the picture they will be taken to the original article where the above interactive picture may be manipulated in any direction thus providing a breathtaking view of the entire inside of Mr Bruno’s creation … Highly recommended

” By the end of his life, the house had grown into a four-legged beast, with three principal levels sprawling over some 2,200 square feet. To enter it from the street, one crossed a short gangplank, as if boarding a ship, which led to an arched doorway fronted by a gate of looping steel. Passing through it, one fully entered Bruno’s world, a multidimensional universe of swooping ribbons of rust-colored steel, with floors shifting up and down, and walls twisting and turning and fusing into themselves. Beckoning one forward into the space was a sunken living room with a lozenge-shaped picture window, its panes divided by curving steel tracery, that looked out dramatically on Lake Ransom Canyon.

Bruno’s makeshift bedroom, minimally furnished with a bed, a streamlined wooden desk he designed for himself and an antique Chinese cabinet, was set in an adjacent alcove, with a small bathroom to its side. A kitchen and second bedroom, stuffed with junk, could also be found on that main level. A torquing stairwell, with treads of dark olivewood, led to the top floor, an aerie with a long curving window and a patio off to the side, a space that seemed like nothing so much as the bridge of a ship.

“ If you look at it in the aspects of a house, I don’t know why anyone would want to live in it, but of course it’s art,” says Charles Hobbs, 79, a retiree with the bearing of John Wayne. Hobbs watched Bruno from the porch of his ranch house across the street. “I made the mistake one day of asking him if he was going to paint it, and he straightened me out real quick. If you painted it, it would be just like any other house.” “

” Is Sig Sauer trying to wiggle around regulation or are regulators ruling on arbitrary and capricious logic? Those are the questions Sig and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives answer in their final motions in a lawsuit over classifying a Sig muzzle device.

On paper, the New Hampshire-based company claimed the item was a muzzle brake, but the ATF classified it as a silencer, which would subject ownership and manufacturing of the item to strict regulations.

Sig filed suit in a New Hampshire federal court April 2014 after contesting the ruling for a year. Although legal arguments quickly plateaued, public interest in the case grew as some gun rights advocates began to see the case as corporate advocacy — an effort to undermine laws regulating silencers.

However, Sig’s attorney, Stephen Halbrook, said the company aims to simply challenge a regulator that “overreaches” how it interprets legal definitions.”